u/catsandrats3333

Planning a trip late January to Austria for a week. We have the Indy pass so we’d like hit up SkiWelt for 2-3 days of the trip, but are having a hard time deciding where to be for the remainder.

We love the idea of St Anton/Lech/Arlberg area as it seems like it has the best snow combined with sheer size, but it’s extremely expensive for lodging and I can’t tell how much if the appeal is the apres scene vs excellent on piste skiing.

If St Anton/Arlberg area is the best of the best independent of apres stuff, then we will go there and figure out a way to make it work, but we wanted to make sure we weren’t overlooking other places that may be just as good.

I’ve heard mixed things on Sölden, Zillertal and Ischgl, Saalbach.

We considered Innsbruck, but ultimately decided that we didn’t want to spend ~upwards of 2 hrs each day bussing to each (small-medium sized) place just to make use of the Indy pass. Although Stubai does sound impressive.

About us:
(New England) strong intermediate + expert

What we care about:
-Reliable snow for the time we will be going (late Jan)
-Cute village(s) + village to village skiing
-ideally less expensive than St Anton/Lech but if it’s truly the best then we will figure out a way to make it work

What we don’t care about:
-crazy apres scene
-free riding/off piste, would absolutely love to do some off piste exploration but we are not planning on hiring a guide for this trip so we unfortunately won’t be able to make use of off piste stuff

My mom has always been messy (but not dirty), but as she has gotten older it’s gone off the rails to the point where she is both incredibly messy and incredibly dirty. When we visit, her place always has pills on the ground and random nuts and other food debris scattered about (despite her saying that everything was just cleaned). If she eats a sandwich, for example, she’ll immediately start touching her phone or (anything) without even thinking of wiping off her hands that have visible chunks of jam or whatever on them. There is often semi rotting food thrown in the sink as if it’s a trash can.

The dilemma here is that our in laws end up pet sitting for us if we go away for a while, and my mom wants to be the person to house sit for us as we have a nice house in a nice area.

I genuinely feel bad, but I also feel like I need to set a boundary., as we do not want to come home to a house that has random pills scattered about (that will likely be eaten by one of our dogs when we come home), food debris everywhere, spilled drinks on our expensive furniture, etc.. For context the dogs will be boarded anyway, so it’s really just the cats that are there, but still.

When she asks, I cite that we are concerned about her remembering that the doors are tricky and we worry about our cats getting out(they pop open if you don’t deliberately pull them closed and hear a click) which is true, but I don’t think she’s fully aware of how much of our concern is due to how messy and careless/forgetful she is. I’m pretty sure she would lose her shit if I told her that it was because of how messy she is. I get it, it would hurt to hear too, even if said gently.

She often will make an attempt or two to be neater or remember something, but after the first or second time she’s forgotten or deemed something unimportant, it quickly becomes “well that’s just the way I am! You’re being critical - don’t judge me!”. In her mind, she is a free spirited hippie and I am a controlling clean freak.

Am I the asshole here?

TL:DR mom is incredibly messy/dirty/totally disregards taking care of items - as a result, I do not feel comfortable with her house sitting for us and our in laws (who are quite tidy/conscientious) watch our house instead.

What are the best places to ride in the Teton/jackson area during this time? Novice east coast rider, ideally will have a view of the mountains, love jump progressions and tech but nothing crazy (also not picky given lack of options most likely tho)

I’ve done some preliminary research via Mountain Bike the Tetons and have been eying their trail report updates - but as someone unfamiliar with this area, what are the best trails/parks that would be open at this time for a solid day trip/half day?

Targhee looks drop dead gorgeous but sadly not opening until 6/12 (unsure if they allow uphill travel in off season though?). Jackson Hole also doesn’t open until after June also it seems.